April 1 Thursday — Sam was in New York, having spent the night at the home of H.H. Rogers. A 3 p.m. he caught the steamer Jefferson for Norfolk, Va. to attend a banquet honoring H.H. Rogers for opening a new railroad there [Mar, 28 to Nunnally]. The New York Times, p.1, Apr. 2, 1909 reported their departure:
H.H. ROGERS OFF TO VIRGINIA.
Mark Twain and Others Accompany Him to the Opening of His Railway.
April 2 Friday — Clemens recorded this day’s events and of Ashcroft carrying Horace Hazen’s forced letter of “discharge” on the trip to Norfolk:
April 3 Saturday — Sam and H.H. Rogers attended the banquet in Norfolk, Va. celebrating the completion of Rogers’ railroad there. The New York Times of Apr. 4, reported the event on p.10:
VIRGINIANS GIVE PRAISE TO ROGERS
Show Recognition of His Accomplishment in Building the Virginian Railway.
$20 BANQUET IN NORFOLK
Rogers Says Road is a Business Enterprise, but His Interests Are Common with State
Special to The New York, Times.
April 4 Sunday — In Norfolk, Va. Sam telegraphed Clara about Horace Hazen’s note, that he had been discharged [MTP: L-A MS]. Note: the telegram is not extant.
April 5 Monday — In the evening Sam sailed for New York City, where he evidently stayed two days before continuing on to Redding, Conn. [Mar. 28 to Nunnally].
The Norfolk LEDGER-DISPATCH reported Sam’s presence in Norfolk on this day:
MARK TWAIN DELIGHTED THE LITTLE ONES
Famous Humorist at the City Kindergarten and the High School
TOTS GIVE HIM A DOSE OF HIS OWN MEDICINE
April 6 Tuesday - Sam reached New York City, and stayed the night at H.H. Rogers’ home [MT P: L-AMS].
Oscar Williams wrote from Westport, Conn. to offer a farm for sale [MTP].
April 7 Wednesday — In NYC in the a.m., Sam went to see Clara to get to the bottom of the firing of Horace Hazen:
April 8 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to John A. Macy.
Dear Mr. Macy: / I emptied into my Autobiography some remarks about Mr. Greenwood’s able book, and then took a notion to slam them into Harper’s Monthly: but that would put them off much too long, so I made a booklet of them, to be issued to-day. Now that is too early by three entire weeks, as I found last night when I got back from a week’s absence in the South and read your letter. It’s vexatious! but let it go, it can’t be helped.
April 9 Friday - Sam recorded events at Stormfield “‘a day or two” after his Apr. 7 arrival from NY:
As I have said, I reached Stormfield on the 7th of April. Things were buzzing so to speak. Ashcroft came up a day or two later. Meantime I had not happened to see anything of Horace, & was too busy to look into his case. When Ashcroft arrived he paid Horace to date, & I signed the check. He paid him at the old rate—a confession, apparently, that Horace had not been “discharged,” & that Ashcroft knew it.
April 10 Saturday — In Redding, Conn., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frederick T. Leigh.
“Tell the Major to bring out the Stormfield book at a dollar & we'll see if what he says is true, Nobody’s word is worth a damn anyway, & now we'll have figures to prove it,”’
Dear Major Leigh:
April 12 Monday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka.
Dear Duneka: /PAGE 31 OF VOL I, “Letters of James Russell Lowell.”
That page is what I want, (to read at a banquet to Jerome May 7.) Tear it out & send it to me. It is part of a letter to E. L. Godkin (1869), & is just what I want as a text, in case I should wish to get up & talk. / Ys ever
/ Mark [MTP].
Sam’s new guestbook:
April 13 Tuesday — In the evening Sam attended daughter Clara’s concert at Mendelssohn Hall, NYC. The New York Times, Apr. 14, p.11, gave her performance mixed reviews, as did other city papers. One unnamed paper follows the Times report:
MISS CLARA CLEMENS SINGS.
Mark Twain’s Daughter Heard at Recital with Miss Littlehales.
April 14 Wednesday — Sam spent part of the day in NYC; likely he spent the night of Apr. 13 with the H.H. Rogers family. He recorded a talk with Ashcroft that took place on this day:
April 15. Thursday — Sam noted in his after Sept. 25, 1909 letter that on this day, “The Lioness abolished.” In his L-A MS “‘letter to Howells” he gave particulars:
On the 15 I gave Miss Lyon a month’s notice—sent it to her room by a maid. In the forenoon. Claude [Benchotte] (butler) arrived at noon. In the afternoon Miss Lyon sent me her reply by a maid. She had been married about a month, but was still called by her unwedded name, & she was still using it herself, & so it came natural to her to sign the present note in that way.
April 16 Friday — Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.
April 17 Saturday - At 3 a.m. in Redding, Conn., Sam began a letter to William Dean Howells, that he added to at 10 a.m.
My pen has gone dry, & the ink is out of reach. Howells, Did you write me day-before-day-before yesterday, or did I dream it? In my mind’s eye I most vividly see your handwrite on a square blue envelop in the mail-pile. I have hunted the house over but there is no such letter. Was it an illusion?
April 18 Sunday - Sam’s original guestbook, since replaced by the newer, more elegant gift from Mary B. Rogers, for some reason lists this date for Frederick E. Robson, Toronto, Canada. Under Robson’s name: James Parks, Bank House, Birkdale, Lancashire 0.8 V. 09 [Mac Donnell TS 7].
April 19 Monday - In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Montclair, N.J.
Dear child you will be as welcome as if it were your mother herself calling you home from exile!
April 20 Tuesday — Sam recorded an incident for this date:
April 21 Wednesday — Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| F. A. Duneka | New York | April 21, 1909 |
In his copy of Letters of James Russell Lowell, Ed. by Charles Eliot Norton (2 vols.; 1893), Sam wrote a note about his own suicidal impulse in 1866 and dated it this date, 3 a.m.: In part:
April 22 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Elizabeth Wallace.
Dear Betsy: / It is not conveyable in words. I mean my vanity—rotten joy in the dear and pleasant things you say of me, and in my enviable standing in your class, as revealed by the class’s answer to your challenge. So I shall not try to do the conveying, but only say I am grateful—a truth which you would easily divine, even if I said nothing at all.
April 23 Friday - On a page of notes in the Lyon-Ashcroft MS, Sam wrote under the heading “Eavesdropping,” “Apl. 23 Clara went to Mr. Rogers. (His letter)” [L-A MS XIV]. Note: the letter from H.H. Rogers in the source as follows:
My dear Clemens:
I had a call this morning from Clara, when she told me of her troubles, and after she had said you knew of her coming to me, I ventured to say that I would be very glad to take up the matter, if you desired it, and see if I could straighten it out to your entire satisfaction.
April 24 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Robert J. Collier.
Dear Robert:-—
If in my time I shall have your good and dear father’s happy fortune, be glad for me, as I am glad for him; but grieve for those I leave behind, as I am grieving for yours.
With my love,
S.L. Clemens
(MTP: Peter F. Collier, In Memoriam 1910).
Sam’s new guestbook:
April 25 Sunday - In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to the Apr. 23 from James M. Beck.
April 26 Monday — In Redding, Conn. Jean Clemens finally came home, signing into the guestbook and giving her address as “Stormfield” [Hill 226; guestbook below]. Note: Hill further points out that Jean would never leave again; that an adjoining 125 acreage with barns and livestock, called “The Italian Farm,” became hers. The purchase had been arranged in Feb. for $4,200, and was one of his final acts as Twain’s business manager.